Widea Lab’s Audio Renderer

Widea Lab is a young Korean company. The company says they’ve got some strong candidates for US distribution and will also be selling via Amazon. Their first product, the Aurender (short for Audio Renderer; $5700), is a digital music server utilizing a customized Linux OS, linear power supply, and storage for over 5000 lossless and uncompressed CDs. It offers coaxial, optical, and AES/EBU outputs and can be controlled using a clever iPad app which displays album art, all useful metadata, and, on first glance, even seemed friendly to classical music.

I was able to quickly and easily scroll through playlists and select Neil Young’s “Don’t Let it Bring You Down.” Using Vaughan Zinfandel loudspeakers ($6495/pair) and Magenta amplification, the sound was appropriately lovely and emotionally compelling.